March 28, 2011

It’s a good thing the wall of daisies was artificial, since the near-freezing wind that swept through Herald Square would have made short work of any exposed bloom at Macy’s annual Flower Show on Sunday. Still, Midtown tourists and shoppers took little notice of the icy chill, and flocked to the department store to see the store’s new, colorful interior.

The real must-see attractions, though, were the pets in floral dog-Snuggies. One pup, looking thoroughly pleased with his/herself, sat in a glamorous baby stroller, ears and nose peeking out from an assorted rainbow of foxtails and lilacs.

Pedestrians relived their childhoods, throwing arms around Mickey Mouse and Elmo for a snapshot, only to be confronted moments after for a tip, to be deposited in what oddly resembled an oversize cotton condom (Elmo’s was red, Mickey’s blue). There was an overall disturbing lack of tie-dye hippies, flower power, and Hendrix riffs on the PA, but face painting? Yes, please!

The Macy’s Flower Show, which kicked off on March 27 and runs until April 10, features several distinct garden ecosystems, from desert cacti to Bible Belt vegetation (“the Antebellum garden”), Far East bamboo, and tropical shrubbery. Exotic-looking fake plants loomed high above the mostly empty makeup and jewelry stations, while towers of more fake plants rose from the intersections of the store’s impossibly crowded floor spaces.

Outdoors, a butterfly wing-wearing pup named Bandit, owned by designer Anthony Gil de Rubio, was crowned Best in Show over roughly 30 slightly less fabulous though equally cute pets in the Macy’s Spring Petacular.

Anthony Gil de Rubio via Facebook

Flower Show-goers in the week ahead can look forward to seminars on floral decorations for your clothing and your tiny, flower-bare apartment. Several cooking shows are in the lineup as well, some featuring dessert experts and one that samples “A Taste of Colonial Williamsburg.”

As the people colonizing the ‘Burg right now tend to prefer the $4 taste of a PBR and shot of Jameson, that should be one fun cooking show.